


Meet the Neighbors

by thebeatofmyowndrum



Series: Oh Blessed Be [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Coulson has a family, Family Dinner, Five Coulson kids, Gen, Post-Hale Fire, The Cellist is his wife, welcome to the neighborhood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-08
Updated: 2014-04-08
Packaged: 2018-01-18 16:47:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1435633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebeatofmyowndrum/pseuds/thebeatofmyowndrum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three months after their family was burned alive, Laura and Derek Hale find themselves living with one of their mother's friends from college in Greenwich, Connecticut. Hannah Coulson is determined to befriend the newcomers to the neighborhood with macaroni and cheese and her father's Captain America Comic Collection.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meet the Neighbors

**Author's Note:**

> Jumping on the Phil Coulson is Stiles's Uncle Bandwagon with this fic. I'm planning on little interconnected one shots for now, and eventually a longer multichaptered fic will be in the works. 
> 
> I don't own Marvel, I don't own Phil Coulson, Derek and Laura Hale or Teen Wolf. Unfortunately. I do own seasons two and of in Teen Wolf and the Phase One Marvel Movies. 
> 
> I take full responsibility for any spelling errors and typos as this wasn't really beta'd. If you see any, let me know and I'll fix it! 
> 
> Also, spot the Hawkeye reference!

 

 

Hannah Coulson was surprised when she noticed the two teenagers lounging on the Hollands' front porch one afternoon in early June. Megan and Nancy Holland, their two eldest children, were away at college in Vermont, and Toby was in the fifth grade, too young to be mistaken for the sullen looking boy picking at the hole in his jeans, glancing up every so often to watch Mrs. Holland speak with her mother over the waist high rose bushes that separated the properties.

"Who's that?" TJ asked catching sight of the duo on the Hollands' porch a moment after Hannah did, gliding up to his older sister on his bike, his twin brother PJ not far behind.

"Don't know," Hannah replied with a shrug. "Never seen them before. We can ask Mom at dinner."

"He looks like a regular ball of sunshine," PJ commented looking over his shoulder, and the boy on the porch seemed to scowl even harder, turning his head minutely towards the sidewalk.

Hannah rolled her eyes at the twins and waved to the older boy. If they were staying with the Holland family, then the least Hannah could do was be friendly to the boy. The boy nodded in response to Hannah's wave before standing up and sliding back into the house, leaving an older girl alone on the porch swing, firmly engrossed in a thick looking novel, ignoring her surroundings.

 

 

Later in the evening, as PJ set the table and TJ poured the milk, Hannah helped her mother serve dinner as the babies, Sarah and Emma, watched TV in the basement playroom. "Who was that on the Hollands' porch earlier?" Hannah asked pulling down the serving platter for the roast beef.

"That's Laura and Derek Hale," Mrs. Coulson replied filling a serving bowl with mashed potatoes. "Poor things lost their entire family in a horrible house fire in California. They've come to stay with the Hollands until they get up on their feet. Mrs. Holland said they spent three months wandering around California before she even heard about the fire. Mrs. Hale was a close friend of Mrs. Holland's from college and she insisted that Laura and Derek came to live with her family."

"That's horrible!" Hannah exclaimed setting the meat laden platter on the counter with a thud. "Can we have them over for dinner this weekend? So they know that we're happy to have them in the neighborhood?"

"I've already extended the invitation," Anastasia replied, a smile twinkling across her face. "Your father said he would be making lasagna and Nana's infamous Baked Macaroni and Cheese."

"Is Dad gonna be home for dinner?" PJ asked, coming back into the kitchen for the plates.

"He's on his way home as we speak," Anastasia said shooing Hannah towards the dining room. "Barring any accidents on the highway he should be home in the next five to ten minutes."

"Did Uncle Nick let him out early?" PJ asked curiously.

"No, I had an appointment out of the office today," Phil said sweeping into the kitchen to kiss his wife on the cheek. "Now let's finish setting the table and have some dinner."

 

                                                                                 -o0o0o- 

 

Saturday started with a torrential downpour, Emma throwing two temper-tantrums before 9 am and TJ losing his Silent Reading book from the school library somewhere between the playroom and the back stairs. Hannah, doing her best to stay out of the three ring circus that was the first floor of the Victorian house, cleaned her room without being asked to, and helped Sarah clean up her side of the room the younger girl shared with Emma. After Hannah and Emma's early lunch of turkey and pickle sandwiches, the general chaos gave way to an organized chaos headed by the one and only Phil Coulson wielding a spatula and a Captain America apron. Hannah was helping prepare the macaroni and cheese as Phil put the finishing touches on the meat lovers lasagna, having already checked in to see if Laura or Derek were vegetarians or not.

"Hannah can you hand me the flour?" Phil asked once he was satisfied with the lasagna and moved onto the macaroni and cheese. Hannah handed her father the cup of flour before she dumped the pot of boiling pasta out into the strainer in the sink. 

"Haaaannnaaaaahhhh," Sarah whined from the hallway, arms wrapped around the Clue game box. "Come play with me!"

"Can't right now Sarah," Hannah replied as she moved onto crust prep. "I'm helping Dad make dinner."

Sarah let out a high pitched whine that usually signaled an oncoming hissy fit when PJ popped up behind his six year old sister. "I'll play with you, Sarah. Hannah's been waiting all week to help Dad make dinner for tonight."

"But I wanna play with Hannah," Sarah whined as she followed PJ back to the stairs to the basement, leaving Hannah and their father in the kitchen.

"Hannah can you pour the pasta into the casserole dish?" Phil asked adding more cheese to the mixture on the stove. "This is going to be done in a moment or two."

"Sure thing, Dad," Hannah replied abandoning the croutons she had been crushing to move the macaroni. "Hey Dad, have you met the Hales yet?"

"I have," Phil replied watching his fourteen year old move around the kitchen gracefully, even with her hands full.

"What are they like?" she asked once the macaroni was settled into the casserole dish and snagged an extra crouton for herself.

"Considering they've just gone through an extremely traumatic experience," Phil began slowly, "they're quiet. Withdrawn almost. Derek hardly said anything beyond hello the other day and mostly let Laura, his older sister, do all the talking."

"What's Laura like?" Hannah continued digging for information on their dinner guests.

"She seems like a very capable young woman." Phil replied, satisfied with the consistency of the roux and took it off the burner. "Laura mentioned differing at NYU until Derek settles in or graduates. She hasn't decided yet."

"Cool," Hannah stood back to let her father pour the roux over the macaroni and added more shredded cheddar and mozzarella onto the dish before they coated it in crumbled butter and garlic croutons for a crust.

"Why don't you go and get ready for dinner," Phil suggested catching sight of the time on the oven after he slid the casserole dish in.

"What about clean up?" Hannah asked, dirty pots stacked in her hands.

"Mom sent me in to help with that," TJ said from the doorway, freshly scrubbed cheeks glowing slightly."She wants us all to be ready twenty minutes before dinner is supposed to start, just in case they come over early."

Hannah gladly handed over the dirty dishes and skipped down the hallway to get cleaned up upstairs.

 

                                                                                -o0o0o0o-

 

Hannah came out of her room dressed in her favorite baby blue sweater, clean khakis and her favorite black flats. She had pulled her dark hair back in a braid and was heading down the stairs to go help set the table when Emma came tearing down the upstairs hallway howling up a storm, her stuffed wolf Bun-Bun clutched in one hand, heading straight for Hannah on the top step.

"Hanny! Hanny!" Emma chanted running for her sister. "I'm a wolf! Just like Bun-Bun!" Hannah giggled and scooped up the toddler, settling the youngest Coulson on her hip easily.

"You're a wolf, huh, Lady Bug?" Emma giggled and held Bun-Bun up and pretended to growl at her sister.

"Notta bug. Wolfy."

"My apologies, Little Wolf," Hannah corrected herself. "What do wolves do to let their family know where they are?" Emma thought about it for a minute before she let out a big howl.

"AWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" she howled happily, and rather loudly in Hannah's ear.

"Exactly!" Hannah said proudly looking at her little sister. "They howl!" Together the two girls howled their way down the staircase as it curled against the wall in the foyer of their home. Just as the two noisy "wolves" reached the first floor, the doorbell rang. Hannah, figuring since she was already four feet from the door answered it to find the Hale siblings looking at her and the still howling Emma a little strangely.

"Oh, hello," Hannah said caught off guard by a little bit. Either she had taken far too long in the shower and getting ready or the Hales were incredibly early. Or it was a combination of the two. "Come in, please. You can leave your umbrella against the wall here by the coat hooks if you'd like." Laura placed the golf umbrella up against the wall and hung her jacket up as well, nudging the still silent Derek to do the same. "I'm Hannah, by the way," Hannah said introducing herself. "And this is my sister Emma."

"Hi!" Emma chirped happily waving hello with Bun-Bun. "I'm three-an-a-half! Bun-Bun is too!"

"Hello Emma and Bun-Bun," Laura cooed at the toddler and stuffed wolf. Derek cracked a tight smile looking over at the sisters and introduced himself without any prodding.

"I'm Derek and this is my older sister Laura. We moved in next door with Mr. and Mrs. Holland."

"Does Toby have a wolfy toy too?" Emma asked curiously, convinced that any child who didn't have a stuffed wolf like her own was living a deprived childhood. All of her little friends from play group and had begged and pleaded with their parents for wolves of their own and Emma seemed to be the ring leader of the neighborhood Stuffed Wolf Pack. Laura seemed to choke on a laugh in her throat and Derek grinned.

"You could say he does," Derek replied "Can I pat, uh... Bun-Bun?" Emma nodded and held Bun-Bun out for Derek to great the wolf.

"Bun-Bun says you smell funny."

"Emma Rose!" Anastasia scolded gliding out into the hall to greet their dinner guests. "What have your father and I been teaching you about manners, young lady?"

"To say please and thank you," Emma replied promptly wiggling out of Hannah's arms once Bun-Bun was satisfied with Derek and Laura's greetings.

"And what about Thumper's Golden Rule?" their mother asked raising one perfectly sculpted eyebrow.

Emma sighed and twisted side to side looking at the ground before reciting, "If you ain't got nuthin' nice to say, don't say nuthin' at all."

"That's right young lady," Anastasia said. "Now please apologize to Derek."

"Bun-Bun and me are sorry for saying you smell," Emma said reluctantly before scampering off to the dining room where she could hear Sarah and the twins giggling at the table.

"Are Betty and Edward on their way over?" Anastasia asked Derek and Laura, peering out through the front door to see if anyone was coming up the walkway in the rain.

"No, Ed got called into the office for some kind of legal emergency," Laura replied, "And Toby's got a horrible fever so Betty's staying home to take care of him. She sends her regrets and a Pineapple Upside Down Cake for desert."

"Oh thank you!" Anastasia said taking the covered dish from Laura. "I'll just go put this in the kitchen until dinner is finished up, Hannah will show you to the dining room."

"C'mon," Hannah said leading the way. "So how do you like it here in Greenwich so far?"

"It's not what I pictured," Derek answered with a shrug. "The way Betty described it made it seem more small town than this."

"It's definitely bigger than Beacon Hills," Laura commented absentmindedly taking in the numerous family portraits that lined the hallway.

"No way!" Hannah exclaimed. "You're from Beacon Hills, California?"

"We are," Laura said raising an eyebrow. "You know anybody from there?"

"Yeah, my Aunt Claudia and her family live there!" Hannah said with a grin. "Uncle Charlie works for the Sheriff's Department."

"Cool," Derek said as they entered the dining room.

"Derek, Laura," Phil said with a smile placing the dish of macaroni and cheese on the dining room table, eyeing Emma as she wiggled in her booster seat to get closer to the food. "It's wonderful to see you again."

"Thank you for having us, Sir," Derek replied as Laura echoed his sentiments.

"Please, have a seat," Phil said placing the pot holders on the sideboard filled with decorative China that had miraculously survived Emma learning to walk.

"You can sit next to us," TJ and PJ chimed in stereo looking at Derek, blinking at the same time startling the older boy.

"Boys," Phil said as a gentle reminder that not everyone was used to the antics that the identical twins usually engaged in.

"Nah, they're fine," Derek said after a moment and sat to the right of TJ. Laura settled into the seat between Sarah and Hannah, and giggled as Emma tried to reach for the food again from her spot at the head of the table next to her mother's seat.

"Everyone settled?" Anastasia asked sweeping back into the dining room once she had removed the extra three chairs from around the table. "Then let's dig into this wonderful meal my husband and Hannah have prepared for us."

 

                                                                            -o0o0o0o-

 

Over the course of dinner Hannah learned that Derek was sixteen, but would be repeating his sophomore year due to the extended amount of time he'd been out of school. His favorite subjects were history and math and he played basketball at Beacon Hills High School. He wasn't sure if he was going to play again in Greenwich, but he had a while to make up his mind. Laura's big ambition was to be a lawyer and eventually a prosecuting attorney, originally she was shooting for the Bay Area or Los Angeles, both a reasonable distance from Beacon Hills, but now she wasn't sure. Laura had mentioned a little sister named Cora, who had been the same age as TJ and PJ, and that felt like it was going to sour the conversation, but Laura and Derek were doing their best to keep smiling. Conversation steered back to safer topics, the Coulson family.

Laura and Derek learned that Mr. Coulson worked pretty high up for the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division. "That's a mouthful," Laura blurted out, biting her lip at her outburst.

"Trust me, we get that a lot," Mr. C replied with a serene smile. "But we're working on it."

"So does that mean your a super spy or something?" Derek asked curiously.

"Or something," the Coulson kids chirped in unison.

"Dad is Uncle Nick's 'One Good Eye'," Hannah said with a grin. "And Uncle Nick is Director Nick Fury to everyone else but us, so basically Dad is the Danno to his McGarrett. Robin to his Batman, Will Turner to Uncle Nick's Captain Jack Sparrow."

"The Bucky to Captain America?" Derek asked, totally winning points with Hannah and her father. Points from Hannah because he seemed like a Cap and Bucky fan AND because he had a gorgeous smile with adorable little bunny teeth the stuck out just a little bit. Points were earned by Mr. C (No, really please, call me Mr. C. I get enough of Mr. Coulson and Agent Coulson at work.) because Derek seemed to know his Captain America trivia. Most casual Captain America fans glossed over Bucky Barnes as Cap's actual right hand man and assumed it was an old USO gimmick like the teenaged boy in the original 1940s comics had been.

When Mrs. C had mentioned she played the cello for the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra, Laura had prepared herself for Derek to have a negative reaction following the Paige fiasco from last year, but his non-reaction freaked her out more. There was something off about it, but Laura shoved it into the back of her mind because Mrs. C was offering to reserve tickets for their next performance and Derek, Derek was accepting them and slid his eyes towards Hannah briefly before sliding back towards Mrs. C. Mr. C, had totally seen that too, no matter how slick Derek thought he was. But Mr. C seemed totally cool with it, so Laura wasn't gonna push it.

Laura really hoped that Derek didn't ask him or Betty to give Hannah the Bite before the year was over. To be totally honest Laura was hoping more that Derek made friends and worked on keeping friends for a little bit before he moved onto dating. Again. The one relationship Derek had that Laura even knew about had ended horribly. But then again the entire pack had known how horribly it had ended with Paige dying and having to stage a wild animal attack to explain the poor girl's injuries. But Laura quickly steered her brain onto happier topics. Like Mrs. C bringing in the pineapple upside down cake from the kitchen.

After dinner was over, cake served, Laura lingered in the dining room talking with Mr. and Mrs. C while Hannah hovered in the doorway, Derek lurking behind her in the hall keeping Emma and Bun-Bun entertained with his "best" wolf growls while Sarah and the twins resumed their game of Clue. "Can I show Derek?" Hannah asked finally after a moment or two of internal debate.

Mr. C smiled, Laura noticed he did that a lot. And that he had different smiles that had different meanings. This particular smile, Laura decided was one of excitement and enthusiasm, because Laura could just feel the combined emotions from father and daughter.

"The key is on the ledge," Mr. C started in and Hannah finished the sentence excitedly.

"Above the door to the stairs to the attic. Gotcha." Hannah bounced up on the balls of her feet as she darted up to her father and kissed him on the cheek. "Thanks Daddy! Promise not to touch anything too much!"

"Cards stay in the sleeves on my desk," Phil replied as his oldest bounced out of the dining room grabbing Derek by the sleeve of his slate gray shirt as she went.

"Promise they will Daddy!" Hannah cried as the raced to the stairs leaving a confused and pouting Emma in their wake.

"What's in the attic?" Derek asked as Hannah led him up the spiraling front stairs and down the upstairs hallway to the far back where the attic door was.

Hannah whirled around in front of the door, key already in her hand in her excitement. "You're a history buff, you said so over dinner."

"Yeah, so?" Derek asked trying to figure out where Hannah was going with this. "I mean yeah your house is pretty cool. It's a neat example of Victorian craftsmanship or whatever."

"So if you're a history buff, you've got to have a favorite, like time period or something," Hannah continued on. "And the fact that your whole face lit up like a kid on Christmas when Daddy mentioned the Captain America exhibit they're opening at the Smithsonian soon."

"Who wouldn't?" Derek retorted. "Captain America is the absolute best. How did you Dad know so much about the exhibit? Is that like part of the Super Spy Boss job?"

"Nope," Hannah grinned weaving the key through her fingers. "He knows so much about it because he donated pieces from his personal collection!"

"He donated from his personal collection," Derek repeated dumbfounded.

"Yupp! I mean it's more like he's loaning certain pieces out to them for the length of the exhibit run, but it's still pretty cool." Hannah turned her back to Derek and unlocked the attic door, pulling the older boy up the stairs with her. "Come on," she said once Derek closed the door behind them and she'd turned on the lights. "You are going to love this!"

Derek looked around the attic and noticed it was a large office space. There was a desk in the corner set up with four computer monitors, (they were all dark, which Derek took as a good thing,) and a giant map of the world pinned up on the wall behind the monitors and desk. Multicolored pushpins had been placed in different countries in various patterns and some of the pins were linked by the corresponding colored yarn. Hannah turned him around so that his back was to this part of the attic and pointed him to the other side of the office space.

"That's Dad's home office. We're supposed to pretend it doesn't exist if he bring any work home with him," Hannah said. "But it's a little hard to do that when on the other half of his office is this fabulous display."

Derek had to agree with Hannah. The wall that they were facing was covered in carefully framed and shadowboxed Captain America comics and posters. On a hip high book shelf there were various Captain America action figures, some in their boxes still, preserved in display cases, and other that showed signs of hours of play stood proudly on the shelf, one of the figures in the back was most definitely not in mint condition, but had the air of a much beloved toy in the collection of well preserved toys. The bookshelf itself held hand painted steel tubs in rather whimsical patterns. Inside of the tubs, there were comic books. Hundreds of comic books, if not a thousand. Each was in its own plastic protector sleeve, protected from dust and stains if anything was spilled on them. Derek was under the opinion that the older Coulson children valued the comics too much to even consider drinking soda or Heaven forbid, grape juice (that shit was nasty, he didn't care what Cora had said about it) anywhere near comics that rare.

"That," Hannah said sounding rather proud, "is every single issue of every single Captain America comic book run. We've got duplicates of all the issues from '93 on, but Dad's trying to get more of the original USO War Bond run from '43 to '45 so he can donate a set to the Smithsonian. He's halfway there I think."

"That's amazing," Derek breathed out, completely in awe of the number of comic books in front of him.

"If you think that's cool come look at this," Hannah said opening up a filing cabinet draw.

Derek walked over and looked into the draw, he felt his jaw drop as he read the label on the film canisters in the draw. "These are USO performances from Europe and the US War Bond Tour. How did your dad get these?"

"Peggy Carter," Mr. C said behind the two teenagers, Laura trailing behind him, curious to see where her brother had been dragged off to.

"How?" Derek asked in disbelief, awe dancing across his face and a new appreciation for Mr. Coulson building.

 "Former Director Carter and I are friends," Phil said pulling open another filing cabinet draw and handing Derek a framed black and white photograph of Captain America and the Howling Commandos sprawled out in the back of a transport truck, exhausted, covered in dirt and grime, uniforms ripped in some places, but giant grins on their faces. Cap and Bucky were sitting at the back of the truck, their legs dangling off the edge, arms wrapped around each other with matching grins on their faces. The rest of the men, Dugan, Morita, Falsworth, Jones, and Dernier, were all smiles in the background, laughing at something that had been said.

"That's my favorite picture of them," Hannah told Derek. "Mostly because they're just so happy. They're coming back from fighting the Germans, probably got shot at, had a close call or two, but they're all there, and they're all just so....happy. They have no idea what's going to happen to them in just a few weeks."

Derek nodded, impressed with the minuscule look at the collection Mr. C had accumulated.

"You wanna read some of the comics?" Hannah asked him after a few minutes of digging through the filing cabinets. "Dad even lets us touch the ones from the 40s without gloves. Nearly drove the lady from the Smithsonian crazy because we were getting 'body oils' all over the pages." Hannah waggled her fingers at body oils and rolled her eyes. "I mean I'm gonna be fifteen in September, so I know what I'm doing when I pick up the older comics."

On the other side of the room, Laura smiled. It was a tired, but happy smile. "I think we're going to be staying in Greenwich longer than I planned," she said to Phil quietly as they watched the pair go through the comic books and Hannah explained how they used the paint stirrer sticks to mark whose place was whose between her and the twins. Hannah offered to make Derek a place marker, and the first genuine smile Laura had seen in months had blossomed on his face.

"You'll both be welcomed here as long as you would like," Phil said leading the way back down stairs. "Alpha Hale"

Laura felt her jaw drop and the familiar feeling of panic and terror flared up. "How did you know?"

"It's my job to know these things," Phil replied calmly, even as the Alpha red began to bleed into Laura's usual hazel colored eyes. "Your secret is safe with me. I've known the Hollands are werewolves since we moved in five years ago. Anastasia has no idea, and neither do the children. I intend to keep it that way unless you would like to reveal your pack at some point in the future. The choice is yours."

"You know my brother could tear your daughter apart right now and you're okay with him staying up in your Secret Agent Captain America Shrine unsupervised?" Laura asked warily, suddenly feeling the need to reassess her new neighbor.

"They're too busy geeking out over the comics," Phil shrugged. "I'm sure they'll find the werewolf Captain America story arc at some point, and I'm sure Derek will laugh at it and steer the conversation away from werewolves given the opportunity."

Laura tilted her head trying to interpret what Mr. C was saying. "I trust your brother's self control as well as I trust my daughter to know how to use the shotgun in the closet and the Glock in my desk drawer should the need arise."

"Mr. C, I think this is going to be an interesting relationship between neighbors," Laura decided, calming down enough to retract her claws and return her eyes to normal.

"Oh this, this is nothing." Phil sighed. "Our neighbors across the hall in Manhattan were Sleeper Cell Agents for the Soviet Union."

Life in Greenwich, Laura decided was going to be anything but normal, but she decided as Mr. C went on about their former neighbors, who were now cooling their heels in Leavenworth (even if they were a 78 year old married couple), and their plan to take over Brooklyn with a track suit wearing crime syndicate.

"That'll never work," Laura said. "It's ridiculous."

"Exactly," Phil said with a laugh.

 

Several hours later, Derek and Hannah having read up to the 1950s together, and Laura had clued Mrs. Coulson in on the Hale family secret over a bottle of whine, the Hales headed back to the Hollands' home.

"So what did you think of the neighbors?" Laura asked Derek once they were outside. "They're awesome," Derek replied honestly.

"Good," Laura said wrapping an arm around her brother's shoulders, "because we're staying as long as it take for me to learn how to be the best Alpha I can be for our little pack. And Mr. Coulson? Totally could make the CIA look bad. Total badass super spy." Derek laughed and Laura confirmed her earlier thought. Greenwich was going to be good for the both of them. She could feel it.


End file.
